Breath of Fire: Hunger
by Jimborg52
Summary: Alternate Universe fic. What happens when a world domination scheme overlaps with an alien invasion. Warning: Early chapters extremly slow. I NEED YOUR REVIEWS! Chapter 4 up.
1. Default Chapter

_Beeeeerrrrrrr_. Tapping filled the silence as the sole occupant of the room waited for the call to go through. It was a _very_ large room, which formed an almost perfect circle. The well-equipped commander's chair in the room's epicenter was bordered on three sides by electronic equipment, providing the only light in the room, which was dim at best. In front of the chair was a map of the world, with glowing red points slowly pulsing.

He had thought of everything: no variable was too small to be excluded from his calculations; the weather was even being monitored for ideal conditions. He seriously doubted that the weather would play any factor at all in his plans but he was determined to leave _nothing_ to chance. He had arranged all the pieces on the board in preparation… well, all but one. Rolling his eyes and sighing as he remembered that _all but one_ was often a phrase heard frequently among mad scientists, most often when their plans had included everything- except for that _one_ variable that had inevitably brought about their downfall. _He_ was not going to fall into that particular trap: he might be considered a mad scientist or an evil genius or what have you, but this was going to be mad science executed _correctly_ dammit!

_Beeeeerrrrrrr._ The restless tapping of fingers on armrest came to an abrupt halt as the phone was answered.

"Hello?"

"Is this Nina? I –"

"_How did you get this number?_" her voice hissed over the phone, sounding like it had been forced through clenched teeth. Undeterred, he continued in his pleasant tone of voice, trying very hard to keep any hint of mischievousness from his voice and most likely failing.

"Not important. What _is_ important is that I have a job for you."

"This is _ridiculous!_"

"No, actually according to your file, this is quite normal. How else…" he said abandoning all attempts to hide the amusement in his voice "…Would a… freelancer such a yourself be able to make a living without having employers, hmmmmm?"

"…What's the job?"

"Simple smash and grab with a minimum of smashing. Your kind of thing I gather." He slipped a disk into a slot located in his left armrest while saying "I'm sending the information to you now: Means of extraction, the tools you will have at your disposal-"

"_This is your idea of **simple**?"_ Nina cried, causing the man to wince.

_And she went straight to the location_ He thought while rolling his eyes. This was going to be a long day.

He had no idea.

Breath of Fire:

Hunger

By

Jimborg

Author's notes: If this ever sees the light of day (Or the internet, whichever you prefer), I am going to be a happy man regardless of its literary caliber. On to the story:

It was mainly inspired by the Capcom game, Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter. It wasn't the most popular or made the most money, but the story and the mechanics made you think, and I'd like to thank Capcom for having the courage to ship something non-traditional like that and here's to hoping that some of that courage transfers over so I actually post the damn thing.

Nina, Ryu, and Momo are the property of Capcom. I do not own them in any way, shape or form. This story, as it is, is purely for entertainment purposes.

This is an Alternate Universe Fan fiction; as such any blatant break with Canon was most likely intentional.

Chapter 1 

The job

Again the tapping of fingers filled a room, although this room differed greatly in appearance from the room where the evil genius did his planning. How exactly, was difficult to determine at first: It could be that the rooms adequate lighting was not intended to obscure its occupant's identity. It could also be the fact that this room was home to benevolent scientific research instead of a hub for a world domination scheme. Or maybe what gave it away was the fish swimming outside the room's porthole.

It was difficult to tell.

The occupant pushed up her glasses and ceased the drumming of her fingers as she came to her decision, and entered a quick keystroke into the laptop in front of her. Her attention was then entirely centered on the printer as it spat out an answer. Carefully pulling the page from the printer she looked it over. Calmly setting the paper down she went over to a large mechanical apparatus attached to the wall, dropped to her knees and cried:

"_Dammit! What in God's name do you _want_ from me?"_

A fifty something scientist who was rapidly losing what was left of his gray locks peered around the corner. "Is something the matter Momo?"

Momo looked back as dangerously as one can look while clad innocuously in a white lab coat with blue undershirt. She gazed back with venom in her brown eyes and calmly replied, "Nothing's the matter. I am merely trying to establish communication with the fish. Maybe _they_ can tell me why the resonance scanner _doesn't work!_"

Chuckling the man walked up to the device Momo was trying to coax to action and replied, "Yep, the machine has been giving everyone a headache lately." Helping Momo to her feet he continued "Can't you figure out what's wrong with it? You _are_ an mechanical engineer, right?"

Momo, a bit embarrassed by her previous outburst, looked relieved, as she actually did have something useful to say to compensate for drawing the busy man away from his work. Ticking off on her fingers she began "I did a thorough investigation of the internal workings via the maintenance hatch, _manually_ sorted through the code for three hours with the debug program, and I just ran the whole gauntlet of sync tests. As far as base AI is concerned…" indicating the scanner with her thumb "…there's nothing wrong with it."

"And yet it doesn't work" he supplied.

"Well…"

"Yes?"

"_Technically_ it's working fine…" Momo continued hesitatingly, handing him the sheet of paper she just printed out "It's just that the resonance signal it picks up makes no sense."

He peered at the paper for a long moment with his eyes squinted, then handed it back to her, saying "I have no idea what this means. I'm an archeologist, not an engineer. However, I have no doubt you know what you're doing, so just stop banging your head against the glass for a second and I'm sure you'll figure out _something._"

Meanwhile, at the opposite end of the sublevel…

"How _do_ you people come up with these schemes?"

To any normal person, the scientist talking to herself would seem a bit… mentally unbalanced. Although those who knew Nina would say that was not too terribly far from the truth, the normal person would only be partially correct because:

Nina was technically not a scientist (The anatomy course she took was only to familiarize herself with vital striking points on the human body) and

She was not talking to herself; rather she was speaking in a voice barely above a whisper that was sufficient to carry to the communications unit snuggled tightly in her ear. The other end of the conversation was received by a woman in a van parked in a non-descript alley.

"We have lots of spare time" came the answer. Nina rolled her eyes. Getting a complete conversation out of her controller was like pulling teeth. However, conversation was not the point of this exercise: achieving her employer's goals (and thus the subsequent payday) was.

"Keep moving" the voice prodded. "You just made it past the second security checkpoint, your target's at the other end of this hallway." Nina looked in the indicated direction. At the end of the metallic gray hallway there was a small aquarium set up so that it seemed like the sea life in the aquarium mingled with that outside. In reality a thick panel of glass overlaid with the metal that made up the rest of the hull of the station separated it from the ocean proper; to the left of the glass was a locked door. Nina looked left and right, something seemed eerily familiar, like smelling something you haven't smelled in years and you're trying to call up the associated childhood memory.

"Miss Nina…" she began, irritation begging to creep into her voice.

"I'm going." Nina replied. Squaring her shoulders, she set off down the hallway. Her controller continued "The room is locked but there is a slot for the ID card around your neck. Inside will be two people: an elderly man and his security guard. You will give the elderly man the report we have provided for you. If he says anything try to be polite and leave. Then you shall receive further instructions" Nina walked down the hallway to the door, admired what a nice shot the photo was on the ID card, and then swiped the card.

Inside was a huge contrast to the sparse hallway. Books were cluttered all over the table; pages of text and diagrams were sticking out of the books and covered a good portion of the table. At one end of the room the previously described elderly scientist was working furiously at the computer, the obligatory white coat seeming to seamlessly merge with his white hair, muttering something under his breath. Sensing movement out of the corner of her eye, Nina saw a blue haired man wearing a black jacket and tie leaning back in the corner opposite the scientist. The card clipped to his suit read "Ryu". His blue eyes flickered to her once, and then judging her not to be a threat, resumed his previous activity of scanning the room.

"Hello?" the old man turned to face her, his eyes visibly bloodshot from staring at a computer screen too long. "Here's your report," she said handing him the document. He grabbed the report from her, not once verbally acknowledging her presence, scanning it quickly and setting it over to the side and continuing his frenzied typing. She looked at the figure hunched over the keyboard then looked at Ryu in the corner with a 'What-the-hell? Honestly. What. The. Hell?' look and he responded with an apologetic smile and a shrug. Turning back to the muttering figure she gave a quick nod and left the room.

"What was up with that guy?" Nina questioned.

"Who? The scientist or the security guard?" came the question in her ear.

"The guard was cute. I can handle cute. But…" A sigh escaped her controller.

"The man thinks outside the box. So far away from the box in fact the use of a strong lens would set the box on fire and he wouldn't know or care."

"…Huh?" was Nina's only response.

"That's how it was explained to me. Turn down the east hallway here and go into the restroom there. Inside you'll find a stall labeled 'out of order'."

Nina walked into the restroom, noting with distaste the metallic gray color still prevailed in here. "Once inside the stall you will notice a grate above you. Inside this grate is the access to the air filtration system, but more importantly, the cables to the security network run directly parallel to the air duct. From there it is a simple matter to -"

Nina touched the door to the stall and froze. There it was again, that sense that defied identification. What in the world could play such havoc with her mind?

Nina's eyes snapped open as she finally recognized what she was feeling, her emotions shifting from mortification to embarrassment to anger in a blur. How could _she_, of all people take so long to recognize something so _obvious_? Nina weighed the options, decided that it really wasn't a choice at all, did a quick 180 walking back into the hallway and broke out into a sprint, all in the space of three seconds.

"Nina! Return to the mission! _Ni_-" her words died on her lips as the quick squeal of static was the only answer to her demands. She rolled her eyes upward as if seeking guidance from heaven and tabbed a switch. "Sir, Miss Nina –"

"I heard." He interrupted.

"Sir, if you give me just a moment I can take her out before she reaches the surfa-"

"Correction, Ms. Crowne, _you _will do nothing except stick to your task. As we speak, the juice in the ink will have started triggering Dr. Campbell's allergic reaction by now. You need to be here to take the call that his security guard will put in on his behalf. At that point you and your sister will arrive on the scene in your medic uniforms, take the professor and go to the extraction point. Please keep in mind that his affliction is genuine and will require treatment."

"And" he continued, "if you used your God given eyes, you will notice that Miss Nina is not even bothering to return directly to the surface."

Looking towards the laptop resting on the front dash, she noted that indeed Ms. Nina's tracking device was in the elevator going down to the third sub level. "Why in the world would she be going there?"

"I don't know. But I'll find out."

"How?"

"I'll ask her. Insistently"

End Chapter 1

Authors notes: Thanks for reading. I need your reviews! Please!


	2. Chapter 2

Authors notes: I think it's time to address an issue that most Breath of Fire fan fictions have in common: Nina. Now first of all in my opinion, Nina's personality in the games was a bit too… bland for my taste. When playing Breath of Fire IV and Dragon Quarter, I would find it perfectly acceptable (in IV especially) if the events that happened to Nina left her with a huge reservoir of _rage_.

Now of course I can't just have her flying off the handle for no reason, so what you're going to see instead during the next couple of chapters is what exactly has got Nina so _angry_.

The reason this chapter is up later than previously intended was the person who functions as my editor has been absent of late so I threw up my hands and said "Screw it" and submitted it myself.

Capcom owns breath of Fire, I lay no claim to the intellectual property therein, this document is purely for entertainment.

**Chapter 2**

Will our Evil Genius please sign in?

The lift shuddered to a stop, snapping Nina out of her internal monologue and back to the present. Lights flickered on with a hum as it sensed movement in the room, illuminating the contents of the dig. Nina almost wished they stayed off.

Directly in front of Nina was a distinct line when the facility ended and the ruins began, metal walkways shifting abruptly into rock worn smooth. A wall, the same black gray color as the seabed it rested on was showing signs of disrepair: Chunks that had left jagged edges in the wall as a result of impacts of one variety or another, irregularities worn into the wall with the motion of the waves, and the entire thing was covered with a light layer of moss. Nina walked over to the wall, her footsteps echoing uncomfortably loud in the room. Wiping through the moss she noticed the remnants of an angular script. Hugging her arms around herself to handle the chill that had little to do with the temperature of the room, she closed her eyes and started inhaling deeply to prevent herself from hyperventilating.

For as far as Nina could tell this was the place she had felt from upstairs, the creppy'got-to-frequently-look-over-your-shoulder-at-every-stray-sound' urge was _much_ stronger down here. No _wonder _she could feels it's creepy vibe from all the way up in the tower. Opening her eyes she inhaled a sharp breath as she saw the rooms centerpiece beyond the crumbling wall: A circle raised off the ground, its construction clearly differing from that of the wall in that the script that ran along the border was smooth and connected, a harsh contrast to the angular and separate runes on the wall. The main eye catcher though was the illustration: two dragons locked in bloody combat. The first, a red dragon, had its foot on the stomach of a dragon of ebony, preventing it from moving anywhere, while the second dragon, in a attempt to move the foot of the first, was racking its claws on it's oppressor's leg and lower torso, sending down rivulets of blood.

_Sweet mercy_. She knelled down next to the ellipse and began to slowly read the script on the border. If she did this correctly, she would never after to do another job for these horrible people ever again. If she messed up… Nina slowly turned her eyes to the metal plated dome that surrounded the dig site, holding back thousands of gallons of seawater. _I would have to learn how to swim pretty damn quickly._

--

"Hey!" Ryu turned away from the chopper that was just lifting off the deck. Behind him was Momo, squinting into the setting sun. "What happened here?" Ryu managed a short shrug.

"I do not know. The paramedics said he was having an allergic reaction to something. One moment he was fine and the next he was gagging a lot and his face was turning strange colors."

"Poor guy. Listen, I have ahemfound a situation which requires your… _particular_ attention. I'll explain on the way down." She said gesturing to the lift behind her.

"I understand" As the pair walked to the lift, Ryu looked back at the helicopter, now a speck in the sky.

"Don't worry. I'm sure he'll be fine"

"I hope so"

--

When the doctor came to, he felt miserable: he had a pounding headache, his throat was sore to the point where it hurt to swallow, and he felt a mild burning in his chest. Forcing his bleary eyes to focus, he found that he was in a small space with a great noise about it. _Helicopter. I'm in a helicopter._

A voice squeaked next to his ear "Don't you worry doc: you've regained normal respiration and that means when we get back, you'll be ready for interrogation!" _Cheerful that voice is. _Too_ Cheerful._

"Not… you." He managed to croak out.

"What? I go all this way to see you and you're thinking I'm not good enough for you! Fine," the voice said with an indignant sniff "I can take a hint. Pass me the syringe would ya?" Dr. Campbell's world went black as he heard a cheerful "Nighty night"

--

_I'll admit that when I started this I was a little nervous. But I think I can do this_. Nina thought to herself looking over the rune-etched ellipse. _I _think. _Now if the runes run clock wise, then… the next switch would be somewhere over…_here. She thought pressing down on a section of the circle that gave way under the weight of her hand. A satisfied grin spread itself across her face as the circle rotated a quarter turn clockwise, a _clunck_ filling the room as two pieces in the ancient mechanism fitted together. _All right. Now for the last one-_ her train of thought came to a sudden halt as the sound of whistling filled the dome. She was unable to identify the song but someone else was here… and was whistling a tune? _What in blazes?_

Nina's eyes flicked back and forth rapidly for the possible source of the sound, finding nothing but the wall behind her and to her right. _Since I would have heard the lift come down, then he's somewhere near the opposite edge of the dome._

_Where is it coming from!_ "Show yourself!" She cried as she drew a pistol hidden in her left sleeve. She had just gotten the weapon out when she felt an impact briefly on her left shoulder, an impact that quickly turned into searing pain that threw her back onto the stone oval.

Turning to her left she saw her attacker; the first thing she noticed was that he was not exactly dressed for a day at the beach. Actually the first thing that she noticed was that she was bleeding from her wound in her shoulder, however what Nina had learned long ago that worrying over a wound was secondary to worrying about an attacker who could inflict _multiple_ wounds of a similar nature.

Her attacker was dressed in a suit apparently intended for covert ops; black was the theme here: Black leggings, black boots and a black suit. Nina was familiar enough with this uniform to assume there was also a fair amount of Kevlar in this particular variety. Her eyes were drawn to the only non-black item on her assailant's wrist, a device that appeared to be a small metallic gray box at first glance, but soon her eye was unwillingly tugged to three gun barrels arranged in a circle recessed inside the box.

"Why'd you do it Nina?" Nina's eyes moved from his weapon to his face, devious green eyes residing under spiky brow hair. It was only later that she realized his face was just a bit _too _pale. "We would've have both left the dig very wealthy people: me, with a copy of the security database and you," he continued gesturing at her "with a small fortune. After, of course the standard vow never to speak of any of these events again"

"…They say you're insane" Nina managed, trying to apply pressure to the wound.

"HA!" he replied barking a small laugh "Those who dance are considered insane by those who can't hear the music"

"…And you can?"

"Of course. But that's neither here nor there. We're not talking about the music here, we're talking about _you_." He said beginning to advance on her prone form. "Keep in mind I didn't choose your name out of a hat. Oh no. I did _research_, I contacted all two-dozen of your previous employers and the one thing they all said was that you followed your orders to the letter Nina, _to the letter_. So Nina, what was it that made you forsake, quite possibly, the easiest payoff of your career?" Leaning down so their faces were almost touching, he finished by almost yelling, "_What was it that I. DIDN'T. KNOW?_"

All of the elements for a successful interrogation were present: Nina, lying prone on an archeological find in no immediate danger of dying but the bleeding very worrisome. Her attacker, in a dominant position and pissed beyond the belief of rational men, with the means to extract answers from his employee turned captive. However, like in any other comparable setting, the mood can be shattered most abruptly, from a most unexpected direction.

In this case that would be the lift _ding_ing as it opened its doors to the dig site.

He raised an eyebrow at the noise and to Nina's surprise, threw her a mock salute "Well. Suppose it could be worse," he said grinning. "Suppose I _could_ be bored"

End of Chapter.


	3. Chapter 3

Breath of Fire: Hunger

Author's notes: Sorry I was so long with this chapter. Moving into your college room will take up A LOT of time.

Breath of fire is the property of Capcom

Chapter 3

Surprise!

"Let me get this straight. I just want to make sure I understand" Ryu began as the lift began to descend.

"Fine" Momo replied

"You are telling me that you detected a source of noise that was interfering with a piece of equipment?"

"Yes"

"In the waters just outside the dig?"

"Right"

"And as far as you know, there is no sea creature that is capable of this"

"As far as I know"

"And so you come to the conclusion the source is man made"

"Right"

"And after coming to this conclusion you proceeded to do what?"

"To track its progress to see what it would do"

"And…?" Ryu looked at Momo, raising an eyebrow.

"It's docked with the dome that surrounds the dig itself"

"Ok… Wait, what?" Ryu looked at Momo again, confusion growing. "How do you know… whatever it was docked here? How _could_ something dock here?"

Momo began explaining as the lift slowed down to a stop "Well as far as I understand it, it involves _what the hell?_"

Ryu turned his head and saw what made Momo exclaim: A woman dressed as a scientist was wounded and bleeding on an artifact in the dig while someone who obviously should not be there was standing nearby. Quick as lightning Ryu pulled his gun out of his jacket holster. "Civil Security force, freeze!"

The man did not react as Ryu thought he would. He did not put his hands up in the universal 'I'm-unarmed-please-don't-shoot-me' gesture. As a matter of fact he was showing no sign of concern or worry. He sighed, rolled his eyes and turned to Ryu. "You G-men are the same the world over, you realize that?" Using his left hand he made the 'I'm-mocking-what-you-just-said' gesture. "Release _her_, return _this_, stop _doing _tha-"

"PUT YOUR WEAPON ON THE GROUND NOW!" Ryu ordered. The man cocked his head to the side. "Yeah, they usually say something like tha-"

"WEAPON. GROUND. _NOW_." Ryu repeated.

"All right, all right." And with an un-strapping motion he removed the metal box from his right arm and threw it so that it was about halfway between him and Ryu. "There, are you _satisfied_ now?" he asked, irritated.

"Now, who are you and what are you doing here?" Ryu said noticeably calmer now that his opposition was disarmed.

"Ask me no questions and I'll tell you no lies" the intruder stated matter of factly.

Silence reigned for a moment.

Momo and Ryu shared a _Is-this-guy-for-real?_ Glance between them.

Nina lifted her head off the ground with visible effort and broke the silence with "His name's Alexander Drasari and he's a criminal."

"A category in which you fit in so nicely my dear, so unless you want to end up sharing a cell block, I suggest you _shut up_." Alexander replied to the prone woman, anger oh-so-slowly beginning to creep into his voice.

If looks could kill then Alexander would be on the floor in several bloody pieces under the venomous gaze of the young, angry woman.

After another moment of uncomfortable silence Ryu said "If you will not answer my questions here, then you leave me no choice but to bring you in for questioning"

"There we reach a disagreement" Alexander stated, applying just a little bit of unnoticeable pressure on his left palm with his fingers, triggering a layer of electronics just beneath the glove. "I would love nothing more than to enlighten the Kyoto officials of my doings, for the time being however, I'm afraid I'm going to have to leave you _in the dark"_

At that moment, chaos broke lose. All electronics in the dig shut off, rendering the bottom floor that all four occupied pitch black and completely silent except for the flurry of activity that followed: Momo yelped, Nina yelled "Get the bastard!" (Although to whom she was referring to was never known), and two shots were fired. A grunt was followed by another gunshot.

When the lights flickered on, Ryu found himself at the business end of his own handgun. Alexander had wrested it from him in the chaos following the electronics shutdown and was now using in his right hand to keep Ryu at bay. Momo, who had unconsciously wrapped her arms around Ryu's midsection in her moment of panic, who looked confused at the looks both men where giving her… until she realized where her arms where. As she straightened up and tried to regain her composure, Alexander gave a small laugh "Wow, you really _are_ popular with the ladies today."

Momo inquired "What was _that_?" This got another laugh from Alexander, who still trained his eyes on Ryu.

"_That_ was an artificially induced electronics failure. The length of time would make it appear as though the main generator shut down, which would be followed by the startup of the auxiliary generator. Standard procedure dictates that all personal would go to the top floor of the dig to the control room, to remotely reactivate the main generator, or if that is not possible, to evacuate." He cocked his head to the side slightly "Although, what they _don't_ know is that all lifts will have frozen once all personal have reached the top level, effectively" gesturing towards Ryu and Momo "leaving you two stranded here for the better part of three hours, while I vanish off the face of the earth. Oh and…" Alexander squinted for a second at Ryu's security badge "Ryu? Yeah, your gunplay sucks."

Ryu eye's never left the face of the intruder looking for an opening: whether consciously or unconsciously, Alexander's eyes darted to the left for a split second, probably making sure that Nina wasn't trying anything.

That was all the time Ryu needed. Time seemed to slow down as his right hand which had been resting at hip level, darted into his pocket, found the hilt of his blade and, in a maneuver that he had practiced dozens of times, stepped forward and started the blade in an underhand arc, cutting through the flap that concealed his blade and scabbard.

At this point, there was little doubt that Alexander saw what Ryu was doing, leaving him with two options: he could either attempt to take a shot at him and most likely lose his right hand due to Ryu's sword or he could back peddle and prevent his hand from sustaining permanent damage. Being taken by surprise, the conspirator chose the second option trying to put as much distance between Ryu's rapidly moving blade and himself from a standing position. The _katana_ sliced through the handgun and the tip only pierced Alexanders palm where it only left a deep cut, not in multiple pieces as Ryu intended.

The handgun drooped to the ground in several pieces while Alexander completed his motion, putting himself outside of Ryu's reach. "You are correct" Ryu said "My performance with a gun leaves much to be desired. My performance with a sword on the other hand…" Ryu punctuated his statement by lightly kicking one part of the handgun so it came to rest at Alexander's feet.

To everyone's surprise Alexander grinned "Now I've seen everything. A government employee willing to forsake standard issue weapons in favor of his weapon of choice? Ryu was it? You want to dance? Fine, we'll dance" Removing his ruined glove he snapped his fingers. Almost immediately the sounds of mechanical articulation filled the room as something very familiar appeared from the air vent. Ryu's eyes widened as he saw Alexander's weapon, the metal box had apparently grown legs. Not only that, six red mechanical 'eyes' were set on the perimeter of the gun barrel, giving it a very arachnid look. It leapt from the vent onto Alexander's waiting hand where it wrapped its legs around his wrist. Flexing his arm, two metal blades resembling lances or even _fangs_ protruded from the device.

Assuming an En-Guarde position, he beckoned Ryu forward with his left hand. "Come on G-man. Show me what you got"

End of chapter.

Arthors notes: Yes, I'm aware I almost completely ignored Nina and Momo this chapter. Don't fret as next chapter Momo helps Nina with her current dilemma. Of course what happens after that shouldn't come as too much of a surprise to all you die hard Breath of Fire fans out there. See you next time.


	4. Chapter 4

Breath of Fire:

Hunger

Authors' notes: I really wanted to have the title of this chapter be 'Enter the Cliché' but alas, I feel that the title is fairly accurate. That and I ran out of cliché halfway through.

I hadn't originally intended for it to be this violent, so if any of you guys dislike it, let me know. If that be the case, then I'll pull up the rating. Any who, enjoy.

Capcom owns Breath of Fire, I' am merely writing this for entertainment purposes.

Chapter 4:

Enter the Dragon

_This is unreal_ was the thought that was going through Momo's mind. Ryu, civil-security officer of the Japanese government, was locked in mortal combat with a man named Alexander, whom she gathered from the injured woman to be a fairly high caliber criminal. The mortal combat wasn't even with guns, it was a _katana_ that Ryu had stashed on him somewhere versus some… mechanical spider… thing. Alexander was dressed in the black garb of a covert operative, while Ryu could've been mistaken for an ordinary businessman wearing his black suit and tie, the only difference being the civil security badge and the ... large sword. _Everything_ about this screamed to Momo _This is _not _real. You're going to wake up and find that none of this is happening_. No matter how many times she pinched herself, she apparently refused to wake up.

_... Ok then. Now that I have determined that this is, in fact real, the real question is: What do I do now? Ryu and Alexander have apparently occupied each other pretty thoroughly, so there was no immediate danger there. This leaves…_ Momo thought as her gaze traveled to the wounded woman. Momo hesitated only briefly, realizing that on some level, assisting her would leave herself inexorably entwined with whatever was occurring between Alexander and everyone else here.

"What's your name?" Nina shifted her effort from her wound to the woman speaking to her.

"Why the hell do you care?" sighing, Nina said "Nina. My name is Nina"

"Alright Nina, do you think you can move?" Momo asked, looking critically at Nina's wounded arm. Momo wished, not for the first time, that people were as easy to repair as machienes.

"Not yet" Nina replied. Momo, looking confused, gave an appropriate "Huh? Nina, you're wounded, you're not thinking correctly we have to get out of here n-" Momo's protest were cut off but Nina grabbing Momo's jacket with her wounded arm, dragging Momo over so that her face was inches from Nina's and said "Alexander's slipped through tight nets before and I have little doubt he'll do so again. He's a pompous bastard who refuses to acknowledge how … _insignificant_ he is." She hissed the word through clenched teeth. "This… she continued, gesturing with her other arm towards the stone edifice on which she lay. "…Is what's important. I have to unlock the cell before I can leave"

Momo looked around in confusion for what Nina was talking about "Cell? Do you mean like a power cell? Or is it more like a prison cell?"

"Yes." Nina replied.

Alexander was beginning to have difficulty keeping pace with Ryu. In one word, Ryu's fighting style was best described as 'aggressive'. Every time he tried to get a jab at his side, Ryu would swing his blade horizontally to keep him at arms reach. Alexander was tempted to duck under the sword the next time that happened.

There were two schools of thought on this approach: on one hand, Ryu would have difficulty getting enough momentum for a killing blow once he was inside his reach. Then all Alexander would have to do is gut stab him and the fight would be pretty much over. On the other hand, Ryu could just kick him while he was going for the stab and then he'd be open to pretty much any attack Ryu wanted to use. This was an unacceptable risk. _Funny _he thought _if anyone asked me ten minutes ago, I'd say getting into a sword fight in the first place would be unacceptable risk_.

_Time to get unorthodox._

Ryu feinted a jab at his right side then followed with a diagonal slice going from his right shoulder over his left shin. Alexander stepped to the left of the jab and made like he was going to jab forward with the claw on his right hand. Halfway thorough the motion, just when Ryu had his left hand on the hilt and the right hand on the blade for the parry, the spider leapt off his arm, just _barely_ clearing the blade's edge and latched onto Ryu's face. Not wasting a second, Alexander kicked the blade out of Ryu's hands with a right kick; followed by a gut punch him with his left hand. Snapping his fingers, the spider leapt back onto his hand whereupon he rotated his forearm so that the back of the spider was towards the ground and emptied the remaining two rounds he had left into Ryu's midsection.

Nina was furiously scanning the inscriptions on the outside of the tablet. "Where is it where is it?" she muttered to herself, beginning to panic. Momo said "What are you looking for?" she asked as she traced her finger on the illustration, the stone rough on her fingers "This is beautiful" she said, captivated by the image despite the violence occurring between the two men. The stone gave way under Momo's hand and began to recede from the surface.

Nina hauled Momo around so that they were face to face again. "What did you do?" "Nothing… I think" The stone circle made on last quarter turn, before the switches returned to their original positions so that the image was whole once again. "I think…" began Nina, before she was cut off by the stone beginning to rotate in the opposite direction. Now it was Momo's turn to yank Nina off the stone so that she would not be flung off by the motions of the rock.

Momo heard _chachink, chachink _followed by two wet sounding noises. Turning away from helping Nina, she saw Ryu have sharpened quartz crystal or some rock that was transparent, protruding from just below his left shoulder and where his left rib met his sternum. Blood was already starting to soak through the jacket. _"RYU!"_ Momo cried, running towards him.

"Well, G-man, I must say I enjoyed our time together. Unfortunately, I have a ride to catch. Ta." Alexander said giving Ryu a mock salute as Ryu slowly staggered to his knees, Momo propping him up to keep him from going completely prone.

Unseen by anyone, except Nina, who wouldn't take her eyes of it, the stone began to pick up speed in its rotation, the smooth script surrounding the spinning rock beginning to glow an unearthly blue. Beneath the smooth surface of the seafloor, ancient electronics began to power up for the first time in centuries. Like a pump drawing water from a well, the ancient apparatus began drawing to the surface the forces it had held hostage for an inscrutable amount of time. Freed from its bonds it raced to the surface like a diver running low on air.

The first 'impact' caused the ring surrounding the now blurring fast illustration to briefly flicker. Nina gasped as she felt the resulting energy from the ricochet hit her, literally knocking her off her feet. The second 'impact' caused a spider web of cracks to form in the ring. Nina, now further away from the point of the origin was not thrown but instead merely scooted across the ground, until she felt something poke her. Looking down at what she found, a devilish grin broke out over her face.

"Turn and face me, vile human!" Nina cried. Alexander halted at a door at the other end of the dig site, his hand halfway to the keypad that sat to the right of the door.

"Nina, you're beginning to annoy me…" he began turning from the door. His eyes went from anger to shock as he found Ryu's sword, arcing end over end, aimed straight at him. It struck his right arm near the shoulder pining it to the wall, as blood spattered the door.

That's when the third 'impact' happened: the circle surrounding the rock shattered into multiple pieces as the illustration exploded, sending fragmented stone across the room and filling the dig site with dust.

This was Alexander's nightmare scenario: he was pinned to a wall; the other three people in the room knew _exactly _where he was, and he had yet to get any answers from Nina about how she knew where this place was, or as it seemed now what it did. Plus if he were to remove the blade, he would be risking bleeding out. _The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry_ he thought, _got to think of something._

…

_I got nothing. _BUT! He thought _above all I must not panic. If I panic, then I'm screwed._

…

_I HAVE EVERY RIGHT TO PANIC! I'M STUCK TO A WALL, THOUHSANDS OF FEET UNDER THE OCEAN, AND I LEFT SPECFIC INSTRUCTIONS TO THE CROWNE SISTERS _NOT _TO COME BACK FOR ME! IT'S THROUGH, IT'S OVER, STICK A FORK IN ME, I'M DONE!_ He thought leaning back and closing his eyes in defeat. Until clarity hit him like a bolt of lightning, causing him to gasp not in pain, but in surprise, his thoughts on future modifications on his plans that juggled dozens of variables, his lamentations over his current disadvantageous position, all 'noise' suddenly came to a stop. Alexander Drassari, the man who played three games of Civilization at once and won, was left thinking of nothing at all.

He began to relax until he caught a movement out of the corner of his eye: in the reflection of the blade through the rapidly clearing dust, he saw Momo pick up something from the ground: Nina's dropped handgun. His left hand went to the hilt of the blade, pulled it out regardless of the pain that brought tears to his eyes and threw in Momo's general direction.

Momo flinched away from the blade before a hand deftly caught it out of midair. Momo saw that to her surprise, Ryu was on his feet and charging towards Alexander, blade in hand. _How is he doing this? A few seconds ago he was barely able to kneel. Now it looks like he's eager to tear Alexander apart._

Ryu screamed as he brought leapt into the air bringing his blade down for the kill. Alexander brought his right arm and put the spider drone in between the blade and himself. When the blade got to within a couple inches of the drone, the blade was yanked out of Ryu's hand by some unseen force, sending it flying across the room once more. With his good arm, Alexander gave Ryu a left cross to the face, hoping to send him off balance. Ryu took the blow without moving an inch, spit the blood out of his mouth, and retaliated with a right cross of his own. Alexander backpedaled backwards, dropped to his knees and looked up at Ryu. He noted that Ryu's eyes, once blue were now a shade of crimson. Ryu brought his knee up aiming it at Alexander's head, but he was faster bringing the blade of the spider drone upward, knocking Ryu backwards. By the time Ryu got up, Alexander had opened the door and closed it the sound of a mechanical lock filing the room.

Momo approached Ryu, who was swaying slowly from left to right. "Oh my God Ryu… are you okay?" Ryu turned towards the sound of Momo's voice causing Momo to gasp, not only at the severity of his wounds, which included a bruised face, a midsection that was twice shot with an unfamiliar ammunition and fairly deep cuts left from Alexander's weapon, but also at the color of his eyes. Ryu blinked once his iris shifting back from red to blue and collapsed to the ground with a groan.

As Momo saw to Ryu's wounds, Nina was over at the lift messing with the wires to bypass whatever Alexander had done to the system. Looking over at Momo and Ryu she grinned. _So it begins_…

Author's notes: I was barely able to write this chapter until two days ago when everything just came pouring out. Groovy .


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